Dr. Lily Lau Lai, MD

The patients give you so much ... in them, I can see that life is really precious.As a surgical oncologist, Lily Lai, M.D., earns high praise from both patients and peers.The Harvard-educated Dr. Lai switched from Chinese art history to medicine to have a more direct, "hands-on" impact on people's lives.Dr. Lai joined City of Hope in 1998, after medical training at the University of California San Diego.Specializing in colorectal cancer, Dr. Lai makes a point of learning as much as possible about each patient's lifestyle and needs to ensure the best possible outcome."It's a different discussion with every individual patient. I come up with a different answer depending on my interaction with them. And I think getting better at cancer care is being able to tell where a patient is in their life, what they value, what they need to do."